ANAGRAM SOLUTION AS RELATED TO ADULT AGE, ANAGRAM DIFFICULTY, AND EXPERIENCE IN SOLVING CROSSWORD PUZZLES

Anagram solution, as related to anagram difficulty, adult age, and frequency of solving crossword puzzles, was examined. Anagrams of three difficulty levels, defined in terms of normative solution times, were initially used in Experiment 1. Subsequently, the data were reanalyzed using two levels of difficulty, defined in terms of solution word frequency. Two levels of anagram difficulty, defined by whether the anagram was presented in the form of a word or nonword, were used in Experiment 2. Anagram solution was negatively related to anagram difficulty and positively related to frequency of solving crossword puzzles. With the exception of the second set of analyses from Experiment 1, no support was found for the complexity hypothesis, that is, the hypothesis that age differences in anagram solution would increase with anagram difficulty. The pattern of results was consistent with the lifestyle hypothesis, that is, the hypothesis that age differences in anagram solution would be greater for infrequent than for frequent solvers of crossword puzzles, although significantly so only in Experiment 2.